Genes are Key to Academic Success

Summary: A new study reports genetic factors count for about 70% of stable academic achievement throughout schooling.

Source: UT Austin.

Parents always worry about whether their children will do well in school, but their kids probably were born with much of what they will need to succeed. A new study published in npj Science of Learning by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and King’s College London explains the substantial influence genes have on academic success, from the start of elementary school to the last day of high school.

For many years, research has linked educational achievement to life trajectories, such as occupational status, health or happiness. But if performing well in school predicts better life outcomes, what predicts how well someone will do throughout school?

“Around two-thirds of individual differences in school achievement are explained by differences in children’s DNA,” said Margherita Malanchini, a psychology postdoctoral fellow at the Population Research Center at UT Austin. “But less is known about how these factors contribute to an individual’s academic success overtime.”

Malanchini and Kaili Rimfeld, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, analyzed test scores from primary through the end of compulsory education of more than 6,000 pairs of twins.

Researchers found educational achievement to be highly stable throughout schooling, meaning that most students who started off well in primary school continued to do well until graduation. Genetic factors explained about 70 percent of this stability, while the twins shared environment contributed to about 25 percent, and their nonshared environment, such as different friends or teachers, contributed to the remaining 5 percent.

Genetic factors explained about 70 percent of this stability, while the twins shared environment contributed to about 25 percent, and their nonshared environment, such as different friends or teachers, contributed to the remaining 5 percent. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

That’s not to say that an individual was simply born smart, researchers explained. Even after accounting for intelligence, genes still explained about 60 percent of the continuity of academic achievement.

“Academic achievement is driven by a range of cognitive and noncognitive traits,” Malanchini said. “Previously, studies have linked it to personality, behavioral problems, motivation, health and many other factors that are partly heritable.”

However, at times grades did change, such as a drop in grades between primary and secondary school. Those changes, researchers said, can be explained largely by nonshared environmental factors.

“Our findings should provide additional motivation to identify children in need of interventions as early as possible, as the problems are likely to remain throughout the school years,” said Rimfeld.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Rachel Griess – UT AustinPublisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.Original Research: Open access research for “The stability of educational achievement across school years is largely explained by genetic factors” by Kaili Rimfeld, Margherita Malanchini, Eva Krapohl, Laurie J. Hannigan, Philip S. Dale & Robert Plomin in Science of Learning. Published September 4 2018.doi:10.1038/s41539-018-0030-0

The stability of educational achievement across school years is largely explained by genetic factors

Little is known about the etiology of developmental change and continuity in educational achievement. Here, we study achievement from primary school to the end of compulsory education for 6000 twin pairs in the UK-representative Twins Early Development Study sample. Results showed that educational achievement is highly heritable across school years and across subjects studied at school (twin heritability ~60%; SNP heritability ~30%); achievement is highly stable (phenotypic correlations ~0.70 from ages 7 to 16). Twin analyses, applying simplex and common pathway models, showed that genetic factors accounted for most of this stability (70%), even after controlling for intelligence (60%). Shared environmental factors also contributed to the stability, while change was mostly accounted for by individual-specific environmental factors. Polygenic scores, derived from a genome-wide association analysis of adult years of education, also showed stable effects on school achievement. We conclude that the remarkable stability of achievement is largely driven genetically even after accounting for intelligence.

Feel free to share this Neuroscience News.

Join our Newsletter

I agree to have my personal information transferred to AWeber for Neuroscience Newsletter ( more information )

Sign up to receive the latest neuroscience headlines and summaries sent to your email daily from NeuroscienceNews.com

We hate spam and only use your email to contact you about newsletters. We do not sell email addresses. You can cancel your subscription any time.